IT is no surprise that some parents are very concerned at the hand dealt to them by Fife Council in the way of nursery placements for their children.

While the majority will be pretty happy with the arrangements for this coming August, there seem to be several in the Times readership area who are highly concerned about what the plans are for their children.

There is no doubt that the families in Ballingry that have concerns, have had many members who have enjoyed the nursery teaching at St Kenneth's Primary School, which they want for their children.

That is to be expected but some have found it not to be available to them despite it being put down by them as their first choice.

There has also been a strange situation develop in Hill of Beath where a mum is expected to take her children to different schools at the same time.

There may well be other similar situations in different parts of Fife as this new system has evolved and MSPs Alex Rowley and Annabelle Ewing are right to be asking questions as to how the parents' 'legitimate expectancy' levels have not been reached.

Certainly no new system is going to come into being without a few problems that need to be tweaked.

Hopefully this will be the case here for the mums and dads who are very worried about how their children's early years education is going to start, they do deserve a lot better than the concerns that this is causing.

The council has certainly stated that the education department will look closely at any concerns tabled by parents all over the county and hopefully these discussions will lead to suitable solutions being found.

It is so important that a child gets the best possible start to their education experience and the local parents are so right to make every effort to ensure they get the best for their children.